The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that the Lake Mary Police Department has released additional information on the events surrounding Matthew Apperson’s firing of a bullet at George Zimmerman’s face yesterday. Here’s video of the LMPD press spokeswoman briefing the media:
Additional facts now being reported by the Orlando Sentinel include:
Police recovered two handguns from Apperson’s car, including a Glock 22 (in .40S&W, of course) and a .357 Magnum revolver with one spent case in the cylinder. The police spokeswoman indicated that Apperson had licenses for both guns, a fact which seems odd given Apperson’s prior arrests and sometimes convictions on charges ranging from drug possession to reckless driving to DUI to violation of probation (see: Zimmerman Shooter Claims Self-Defense.)
Police also recovered a handgun from Zimmerman (also a Glock model unspecified), which Zimmerman’s lawyer Don West indicates is habitually carried because of the great number of death threats made against Zimmerman. Zimmerman is licensed to concealed carry a pistol in the State of Florida.
Attorney West states that Zimmerman did not wave or shoot his gun during any portion of Monday’s encounter with Apperson.
West also states that Apperson’s bullet went through Zimmerman’s closed passenger-side window, barely missed Zimmerman’s head, and was lodged in the driver’s side door frame above the window.
West also claims that it was Apperson who was the aggressor:
He initiated the event by following George. George was on Lake Mary Boulevard and on his way to a doctor’s appointment.
Police have confirmed that Zimmerman did not fire his gun.
Apperson’s attorney, Mark NeJame, said yesterday that his client shot at Zimmerman in self-defense, but declined to elaborate. The Orlando Sentinel reports today that NeJame was unavailable to them for comment.
Last September Apperson called Lake Mary police to claim that Zimmerman threatened to shoot him while both were driving on the same Lake Mary Boulevard that was the venue for yesterday’s conflict between the two men. Two days later Apperson again called the police to report that Zimmerman appeared to be following him.
Despite these calls to police, in neither case did Apperson elect to press charges. Huh.
No one has been arrested or charged with a crime in Monday’s shooting.
The police also reportedly released the first-half of the 911 call made by an unidentified and uninvolved party at Apperson’s request, although we have not yet acquired that audio. As soon as we do, we’ll post it up. The second half of the 911 recording is being withheld by the police as relevant to the ongoing investigation.
The police are also to hold another press conference at Lake Mary police headquarters, but that had not yet begun at the time of the press report.
That’s it for this post, folks. We’ll write more when we have more.
–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
P.S. I wonder, is it racism if the Florida authorities don’t throw the state’s “10-20-Life” statute at Apperson with the same determined vigor with which they threw it at Marissa Alexander? Asking for a friend. 🙂
(If you need to refresh your recollection on “10-20-Life,” you can read the full-text of the statute here: §775.087 Possession or use of weapon; aggravated battery; felony reclassification; minimum sentence.)
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
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Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and the author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” available at the Law of Self Defense blog (autographed copies available) and Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle). He also holds Law of Self Defense Seminars around the country, and provides free online self-defense law video lectures at the Law of Self Defense Institute and podcasts through iTunes, Stitcher, and elsewhere.
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